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Show u THE PLIGHT OF THE FARMER The principal problem of the farmer was simply and lucidly expressed by Fred H. Sexauer, President the Dairymen's League Cooperative Association, Inc., when he said : "Our biggest problem today is one of low prices, not low prices of milk alone, but of Out ter, cabbage, hay, beef, wheat, hogs, onions, etc. Low prices in themselves would not be so serious were it not for the fact that those things which make up our living costs have not gone down as much as have the prices of our products.... the solution of our problem, then, lies in one of two courses: either we must reduce the prices of things bought to the level of those things which we sell, or raise the price level of those things which we sell to the level of the things we buy." The latter course is obviously the most desirable and the most feasible. Mr. Sexauer believes that it can be partly achieved achiev-ed by a revision of the monetary system, to recognize other mediums med-iums as well as gold, as the basis of credit. This would undoubt-less undoubt-less help to a great extent, and some such change may come. But the farmer must not believe that that alone would save him. To the efforts of cooperative leaders and public officials, must be added his own individual efforts if he is to succeed in freeing himself him-self from depression. He must, in other words, cooperate with his fellows in any program designed for the common good. It is unquestionably true that an important factor in the collapse of the farm price level, was disorganization, an every-man-for-himself policy that gave the middleman the upper hand in all dealings. All of us buy as cheaply as we can. The farmer will always sell cheaply unless he is represented by some organization with power equal to that of the purchaser. In short, the farmer must bend his own shoulder to the wheel along with those who are seeking to solve his difficulties for him. |